PRIME MINISTER of St Kitts and Nevis, Dr Timothy Harris, is touting his country’s successful Citizenship by Investment (CGI) programme as a model for emulation by other Caribbean countries to boost their ailing economies.

But he cautions there must be a regional standard and “due diligence”, so that when an applicant was refused in Antigua, that person “should never find acceptance in another country because it will bring into question the intelligence of the programme”.

Harris was in Barbados last Thursday to deliver the annual University of the West Indies Students Today Alumni Tomorrow (UWISTAT) prime minister’s lecture. His topic was Reaping The Rewards Of Regional Integration: A Socio-economic Assessment.He told the DAILY NATION the CBI programme was making “a significant contribution” to his government’s revenues.

“It has been the generator of significant jobs in the hotel industry. Several of the brand name hotels which we are now having coming on stream this year and in subsequent years, like the Park Hyatt, the Radisson, the Hilton, all of these have been financed in part by the Citizenship by Investment programme,” Harris said. (GC)